Strike Vote - again

Well, here we are again. Traffic on this site has sprung to life again with the latest strike vote having just finished. 85.2% voted in favour of following the BCTF action plan* in September if no deal is reached in contract negotiations. I reeeally don't want to be back where we were again next fall. But I also feel that it's time to get caught up as far as our salary scale goes.

"Oh, those greedy teachers. They should concern themselves with teaching, not with fighting for a better salary." Comments like that make me crazy. Of course teachers are concerned with teaching. We teach for the love of it, and for the benefit of our students, but we also have to pay our bills. But we're are also concerned with making sure there will be enough teachers a few years down the line. One major concern is the teacher shortage in this province. The government won't admit that it's there, but it is. More and more teachers are retiring, and fewer and fewer people are going into the profession. The Faculty of Education at UBC has been having a hard time filling their seats. For the first time this year, there not been enough students to do practicums with teachers who are willing to have them. Who wants to go into teaching in BC when they can go to Alberta or Ontario and make 20% more? (And don't start harassing me about only being in it for the money. That's such a joke. )

So we'll see where this round of bargaining gets us. I've been hearing on the radio that the BCPSEA (employers) are saying if we are gonig to move forward, teachers are going to have to come down from their initial offer. That's probably true. I don't think anyone is really expecting to get 24%. But the movement has to go both ways. We're not going to take BCPSEA's initial offer of 8%, either.

Ugh, I *SO* don't want to have to go back on strike again. Let's get this thing settled.